White House: Trump Will Keep the US in the Paris Accord Unless He Doesn't

In a scoop on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump was considering not pulling out of the international Paris climate agreement. If true, it would signal a huge policy shift for an administration that has been anti-environment and filled largely with climate change deniers. It would also flat-out reverse one of Trump's campaign promises.

All of this comes from an environmental summit in Montreal, where a European Union official said that the U.S. was willing soften its stance and review the terms of the Paris agreement. But if Chuck Schumer and Nacy Pelosi's DACA dealing with Trump has demonstrated anything, it's that you shouldn't announce that the president is on your side before you have something ironclad. The White House was swift to distance itself from any rumors that Trump is totally committed to derailing any efforts to work against climate change and hadn't changed his stance on Paris. According to an official statement, "There has been no change in the United States' position on the Paris agreement. As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country."

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, took to ABC News on Sunday to stress that the internationally agreed to criteria are a bad deal. He even added that Trump also backed out because it "was not good for the environment," which is a great example of political gaslighting.

On Face the Nation, Rex Tillerson gave an expert-level non-response:"I think under the right conditions, the president said he's open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue." Tillerson is either saying that Trump is likely to do anything or any reason, or he's just short of admitting he doesn't know what's going on.

So the White House is denying that they're reconsidering anything and just maintaining the option to reconsider. It's entirely possible that, like DACA, Trump doesn't actually understand the Paris agreement, climate change, temperature, whatever. Hopefully the grown-ups dealing with him are learning they need more than his word to trust him.